The knock on D’s black oakwood door sounded off once more, fainter this ti. It was as if they’d done the first set of knocking just to startle him.
He jumped up, dusting himself off and tried to quiet his chaotic inner feelings about the entire ss that’d just happened with Clea. He turned to the door and placed his hand on the handle ever so slightly.
He was apprehensive about any other guests today, but he supposed it couldn’t get much worse than it already was.
He twisted the door’s tal handle and creaked it open the ever most tiniest bit. Luckily this ti he was greeted with a much more familiar face.
Scarlett stood just beyond the door, her face only about a foot away from where D’s was peeking through the small crack in the door fra.
"Uh, hi. Didn’t expect you to get here this quickly, or today even." He said as he fully opened the door for her. The swing of the door fully pelted his nose with her cinnamon and rose scent and carried it throughout the room.
"Well, I was in the area already. The Union is doing this fried chicken night thing, it was pretty good." She stepped closer to D and lightly leaned against his door fra, he instinctively took a step back, though he wasn’t sure as to why.
She blinked at him in a subtly surprised way, she ntally reassessed her actions to see if she’d done sothing wrong. Whilst she was lost in thought D walked away from the door and waved her in with his arm. This took her a few seconds to notice but when she did she stepped inside onto the plush red carpet of the dorm room.
"So what did you want to talk about?" She asked, arms behind her back as her head tilted slightly to the side.
"If this is about more lessons, you can always co to-"
"I need a favor from you, a big one." D said, cutting her off mid sentence. "A bigger favor than I really have a right to ask..."
"Um, okay what is it?" She said with such innocent grace that he felt like his body would lt into a puddle on the floor. Where was the version of Scarlett that he’d fought on the beach all of those weeks ago? The version of Scarlett that was ruthless and would attack a cop in the dead of night just to save him? That was the version of her he expect to see, that was the version of he needed right now.
D took a sharp inhale and held it for a mont before exhaling. He ran a hand through his unruly dreadlocks and locked eyes with her in a stern and steely gaze.
"I need you to join the Thorn Trials with us next week, now before you say-"
"What the fuck? No! Does it look like I have a death wish?"
D gave a slight shrug and a nervous smile as he looked at her. She looked as if she’d walk over to him and hit him, but she just walked over and took a seat against the sheets of his lofted bed.
"Why-Why would you ask of all people? And who else is going with you? You know you need five people right?" She began barraging him with questions and growing closer and closer to him as she did.
"Yes, I know we need five people to enter the trials. We had a fifth but she had to drop out for...so reason, I still don’t know. All I know is you’re one of the few people here I can kind of trust and you’re strong...really strong."
She chose to ignore the fact he said he ’kind of’ trusted her and focused on the fact he called her strong, a slight heat flushed her face with embarrassnt from the complint.
"I don’t think you understand how dangerous the trials are D, a bunch of students died last year taking them. People I knew, people you may call villains, but people with friends and families."
"Trust , if anyone here knows how dangerous this place can be its ." It was all he said, a silent few monts passed between them and neither said anything.
D kept looking ahead to the opposite wall, unable to look at her when she was this close to him. He didn’t know if it was fear or sothing else that made his eyes naturally wander when this woman was involved.
"I- just can’t, I finally got away from Clea and her...opinions on humans and all the fighting and the killing. I just want to graduate without putting my life on the line more."
"How the fuck is that even fair? For you to help bring here, to a life I never wanted but then to just say ’see ya have fun with the trials’."
Scarlett’s mouth quickly quirked to the side as she prepared to retort, but it seed the ssage got stuck in her throat as she opened her mouth but quickly closed it again.
Not giving her a single chance to recoup her thoughts D continued with his verbal onslaught.
"And Clea by the way, was just here. I’m surprised you didn’t see her as she left. She knows about wanting to go through the trials and she tried to...warn not to go through with it."
"And let guess, that’s not enough of a reason for you not to do them? Its nothing small, just the assistant proctor of the trials telling you not to do them." Scarlett ran a hand through her bright red hair and sighed. "You know sotis I think you enjoy making this place harder for yourself for no reason."
"For no- for no reason?? I don’t want to be her Scarlett! That’s my reason! You think I’ve suddenly changed and want to go to this school? I’ve been scheming a way to get out of here every single day."
Scarlett looked down at the floor, not able to et D’s eyes. The guilt from her part in bringing him here was eating her up inside like a roaring fla devouring a piece of parchnt.
"What is there for you to go back to...once you finally leave?" Was all she said as she swept a swath of red hair out of her eyes and looked to him.
"My mom’s locked up in HAL-Tech for things she didn’t even want to do, originally I just wanted to go there, to see her. Now I’m thinking I can break her out with the skills this place has beaten into ."
A look of shock flashed over Scarlett’s face at D’s declaration of war. Nobody broke out of HAL-Tech prison, it was basically a death sentence for the Gilded once you got there.
"You might be a little dumb D, but you might just be the bravest soul I’ve ever t on this island." She clenched a fist around her tattooed wrist. She could feel her blood pumping harder, and faster due to her powers.
Ever since that ti on the beach, no ever since she first t D in the woods all those weeks ago it was like this. She had to find out why.
"Y’know I know it’s not my place to ask, but how did you end up coming to Blackthorn anyway?"
"Oh that’s a rich question coming from you, Mr. Mystery. Why do I have to be the one to reveal everything about myself. You invited over, maybe you should go first."
D’s cheeks went a little flush with embarrassnt at her brazen retort. He did suppose he asked her here and asked a huge favor of her. He shrugged and threw his hands up in a way that showed he’d yield to her demands.
"I always kind of figured you knew most of what there is to know about , I an you knew my na before I even told it to you."
She lightly shook her head as she said, "That na was just what they had in your file. Most people with Glow have a file with the school even if they don’t realize it yet."
D’s eyebrows shot up to his hairline and his eyes went wide. "That’s totally not the scariest thing you’ve ever said, no big deal or anything."
They both let out small, awkward laughs. She liked that he always managed to make her laugh, even before they were really friends.
She scooted closer to him to the point that their thighs were touching.
"Lets just pretend your file doesn’t exist, tell all there is to know about you D."
D swept over with a nervous glance, instantly noticing that her thigh was now touching his.
"You sure you want to know everything?"
She gave him a vehent nod, and said nothing else.
"Okay, it all starts with my...dad..."
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